MDOT puts brakes on building road near Lt. Gov. Reeves' neighborhood

MDOT has plans for an additional $2 million frontage road project along Lakeland Drive that will connect Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves' gated subdivision to Dogwood Festival Market shopping center. The project is a result of an earmark passed by the Legislature.
Sarah Warnock and Geoff Pender

Mississippi's transportation commissioners have halted movement on building a $2 million road from Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves' neighborhood to a nearby shopping hub.

Central District Transportation Commissioner Dick Hall said that a Clarion Ledger article about the project and concerns raised by Mississippi Department of Transportation Director Melinda McGrath that the road was being built because of political pressure prompted commissioners to postpone taking bids on the project this month.

"I'm not saying we're not going to do it, but we're going to postpone it and re-evaluate the need for it," Hall said.

Hall said that he had believed the road was needed for safety, but that the Clarion Ledger article and McGrath's comments caused him concern. He said he spoke with his two fellow elected commissioners and they decided to hold off on bidding out the project while they examine it further.

"(McGrath is an engineer — she's the head engineer — and knows a lot more about it than I do as a layman," Hall said. "Now that our engineers including the director told me the need for it might not be quite as severe as I thought it was, we are going to re-evaluate."

Hall said MDOT might reconsider putting a "J-turn" at the neighborhoods' current Lakeland intersection. MDOT had proposed this, which would cost about $200,000 compared to $2 million for the new road, but the property owners' association in Reeves' neighborhood, which has appeared to be calling the shots on the project, rejected it.

Records obtained by the Clarion Ledger showed MDOT had purchased more than $300,000 in rights of way and was planning to take bids for an estimated $2 million "frontage road" from the gated neighborhoods of Oakridge, where Reeves lives, and Dogwood subdivisions off Lakeland Drive. The road would run to nearby Dogwood Festival Boulevard and its shopping centers. The public is not allowed to drive through the neighborhoods and the frontage road — which would not front any current development — would primarily serve only motorists in the 130 or so homes in the subdivisions.

The road would be the second and final phase of a $45 million project to widen Mississippi 25/Lakeland Drive to six lanes near Reeves' neighborhood. Reeves and the Senate over which he presides forced MDOT to leap-frog the Lakeland project over repairs to deteriorated roads and bridges elsewhere that MDOT had slated.

McGrath said the new road is being driven by "political pressure ... from the Legislature." She would not specify from whom the pressure is coming other than "the Senate side." But MDOT communications records indicate staff in Reeves' lieutenant governor's office and his neighborhood property owners' association have communicated with MDOT on the project.

The new road is ostensibly for safety of neighborhood motorists, an alternative to trying to turn left onto Lakeland Drive at their current intersection. But MDOT records indicate safety is not the issue. The intersection was relatively safe before Lakeland was widened and safer now, according to MDOT records. The road was being pushed ahead of many others with worse safety concerns and more traffic.

The new road comes as the state grapples with paying for repairs to deteriorated bridges and roadways statewide. Much "new" construction is being postponed so MDOT can focus on "preservation."

Reeves has been unapologetic about pushing for the larger Lakeland widening project. But through a spokeswoman declined to be interviewed about the new frontage road before the article and again on Tuesday. His office issued a statement saying the city, not his office, had been pushing for the new road. McGrath countered this and said MDOT would not have been building it at the city's request.

Hall's Northern District and Southern District counterparts could not immediately be reached for comment.